Feast of the Presentation of the Lord
“What
are you doing?!?” Maybe some of
you who are parents have had those words come out of your mouth, probably with
more emotion than I just gave them.
More often than not an answer is not really necessary, as the sight of
the child doing, well, what children do, often explains what exactly is going
on. Although, this phrase can also
be used when we don’t understand what another person is doing. I imagine the Wright Brothers had a lot
of people ask them, “What are you doing?”
We
might have asked God that question when Jesus was presented in the temple,
which is what we celebrate today on the Feast of the Presentation of the
Lord. After all, Jesus is
God. He doesn’t have to be
presented to God in the temple.
And He certainly doesn’t need to follow the Mosaic Law, because He is
not a subject of the Law, He is the giver of the Law. And this prescription of the Law was given to the Chosen
People as a way of having them participate in the redemption of the
Passover. Just as God passed over
the houses and the Israelites and did not kill their firstborn sons because of
the blood of the Passover lamb, so each male child was to be offered to the
Lord, but instead of the child dying, the animals would take its place, as a
vicarious sacrifice. But Jesus did
not need redeeming. He was
sinless, and so was not under the reality that St. Paul talks about, that the
wages of sin is death. So what was
God doing?
Well,
as often happens when it comes to God, in one action God was doing a lot of
things. First, He was returning to
the Temple built in His honor. The
presence of God, represented by the Ark of the Covenant, had been absent from
the Temple since the Babylonian Exile, when Jeremiah had taken it away and
hidden it somewhere on his way to Egypt.
But, as often happens when you hide something, you don’t quite remember
where you put it. And so, after
the Jews returned from Babylon, even though they built the temple, there was no
Ark of the Covenant to be there.
There are many theories where it was: some say it’s located beneath the
rubble of the Temple that Nebuchadnezzar ordered destroyed; some say it made
its way down to Ethiopia, to the Queen of Sheba, and has been kept safe by
Ethiopian Orthodox priests since the time of Jesus; if you believe Hollywood,
Indiana Jones found it and now it’s locked in a warehouse in some government
facility. But it was not in the
temple. And so, as Jesus is
presented in the temple, the prophecy of Malachi is fulfilled: “And suddenly
there will come to the temple the Lord
whom you seek, And the messenger of the covenant whom you desire.”
Secondly,
God was fulfilling the promise He had made to Simeon, that Simeon would not see
death until he had seen the Lord’s anointed, or, in Hebrew, Meshiach
(Messiah). Simeon, who had waited
on the Lord, was now so glad that God made good on His word, that he broke into
a prayer which has echoed on the lips of clergy, religious, and lay faithful
throughout the centuries:
Lord,
now you let your servant go in peace,
Your
word has been fulfilled.
My
own eyes have seen the salvation
which
you have prepared in the sight of every people,
A
light to reveal you to the nations
And
the glory of your people, Israel.
In this way each member
of the Church is invited, each night before he or she goes to sleep, to recall
how God has been faithful to His promises, and has made salvation know, not
only to the Jews, the Chosen People, but also to the nations, the Gentiles, as
the darkness of sin is destroyed by the Light of Christ. What a great way to end our day, by
learning this short prayer and saying it each night before we go to bed as we
recall the promises God has fulfilled to us!
Thirdly,
God was continuing to humble Himself.
In St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians, he says, “Jesus did not deem
equality with God something to be grasped at. Rather, he humbled himself and took the form of a
slave.” Jesus, through He is the
Lawgiver, submits to the law, setting before us a beautiful example of
obedience. Obedience is certainly
not a popular virtue. But Jesus
shows us that obedience to God always is the recipe for freedom with others and
ourselves.
Even
as God re-enters His Temple in the Person of Jesus, we also know that at the
crucifixion the veil of the Temple is ripped in two by the power of God, and
God establishes Christ as the Temple not made by hands but destroyed by human
hands, but raised up and rebuilt by God.
And Christ makes living temples of those who are joined to Him in
Baptism. We become the place where
God dwells. We become the place
where Jesus is presented as we receive His Body and Blood into our very body in
the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist.
We become lights in the Light that is meant to scatter the darkness of
sin and enlighten others to the joy, freedom, and peace of following Jesus and
living according to His law of love.
Jesus is about to enter into your temple. May the Light of the World find your heart a welcome home,
and then give you the courage to share that light with others.